Scrotifera
Scrotifera ("scrotum bearers") is a clade of placental mammals that groups together grandorder Ferungulata, Chiroptera (bats), other extinct members and their common ancestors. The clade Scrotifera is a sister group to the order Eulipotyphla (true insectivores) based on evidence from molecular phylogenetics, and together they make superorder Laurasiatheria. The last common ancestor of Scrotifera is supposed to have diversified ca. 73.1 to 85.5 million years ago. Etymology Peter Waddell, then of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, explains the etymology of the clade's name as follows: The name comes from the word ''scrotum'', a pouch in which the testes permanently reside in the adult male. All members of the group have a postpenile scrotum, often prominently displayed, except for some aquatic forms and pangolin (which has the testes just below the skin). It appears to be an ancestral character for this group, yet other orders generally lack this as an ancestral feature, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Laurasiatheria
Laurasiatheria (; "Laurasian beasts") is a superorder of Placentalia, placental mammals that groups together true insectivores (eulipotyphlans), bats (chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins (Pholidota, pholidotes), even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla, artiodactyls), odd-toed ungulates (Perissodactyla, perissodactyls), and all their extinct relatives (Pan-Euungulata, pan-euungulates). From systematics and phylogenetic perspectives, it is subdivided into order Eulipotyphla and clade Scrotifera. It is a sister group to Euarchontoglires with which it forms the magnorder Boreoeutheria. Laurasiatheria was discovered on the basis of the Molecular phylogenetics, similar gene sequences shared by the mammals belonging to it; no Anatomy, anatomical features have yet been found that unite the group, although a few have been suggested such as a small coracoid process, a simplified hindgut (reversed in artiodactyls), high intelligence, lack of grasping hands (though mimicry of grasping is observed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Pegasoferae
Pegasoferae ("winged beast") is a proposed clade of mammals based on genomic research in molecular systematics by Nishihara, Hasegawa and Okada (2006). To the surprise of the authors, their data led them to propose a clade that includes bats (order Chiroptera), carnivores such as cats and dogs (order Carnivora), horses and other odd-toed ungulates (order Perissodactyla) and pangolins (order Pholidota) as springing from a single evolutionary origin within the mammals. The name Pegasoferae was coined from the name of the mythological flying horse Pegasus to refer to bats and horses, and the term Ferae, encompassing carnivorans and pangolins. According to this, the odd-toed ungulates' closest living relatives are the carnivorans. Earlier theories of mammalian evolution would, for example, have aligned bats with the insectivores (order Eulipotyphla) and horses with the even-toed ungulates (order Artiodactyla Artiodactyls are placental mammals belonging to the order (biology), ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Placentalia
Placental mammals ( infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished from monotremes and marsupials in that the fetus is carried in the uterus of its mother to a relatively late stage of development. The name is something of a misnomer, considering that marsupials also nourish their fetuses via a placenta, though for a relatively briefer period, giving birth to less-developed young, which are then nurtured for a period inside the mother's pouch. Placentalia represents the only living group within Eutheria, which contains all mammals that are more closely related to placentals than they are to marsupials. Anatomical features Placental mammals are anatomically distinguished from other mammals by: * a sufficiently wide opening at the bottom of the pelvis to allow the birth of a large baby relative to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chiroptera
Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium. The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is in length, across the wings and in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes, with the giant golden-crowned flying fox (''Acerodon jubatus'') reaching a weight of and having a wingspan of . The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,400 species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats, and the echolocating microbats. But more recent evidence has supported dividing the order into Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, with megabats as members of the for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Ferungulata
Ferungulata (" wild beasts and ungulates") is a grandorder of placental mammals that groups together mirorder Ferae and clade Pan-Euungulata. It has existed in two guises, a traditional one based on morphological analysis and a revised one taking into account more recent molecular analyses. The Fereungulata is a sister group to the order Chiroptera (bats) and together they make clade Scrotifera. General characteristics According to a 2022 study by Anne E. Kort, members of grandorder Ferungulata, in addition to their genetic similarities, share common synapomorphy in the lumbar vertebrae (the S-shaped postzygapophysis). In extant ferungulate mammals, this is known only within members of order Artiodactyla. However, this feature is found also in many extinct members of Ferungulata, including hyaenodonts, oxyaenids, mesonychids, arctocyonids and the stem-relatives of perissodactyls (like '' Cambaytherium'').Anne E. Kort (2022.) "Bizarre Backbones: A Synapomorphy in the Lum ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Nyctitheriidae
Nyctitheriidae is a family of extinct eulipotyphlan insectivores known from the Paleocene and Eocene Epoch, epochs of North America and Asia and persisting into the Oligocene of Europe. Several genera, including ''Nyctitherium'', ''Paradoxonycteris'', and ''Wyonycteris'', have initially been described as Bat, bats, although the family is more frequently placed in the order Eulipotyphla. Origins and discovery Othniel Charles Marsh, O.C. Marsh originally described ''Nyctitherium'', from the Eocene of Wyoming, as an early bat based on similarities of its teeth. Since 1872 more than two dozen other genera of nyctitheriids have been named, and several of these have also initially been considered bats. George Gaylord Simpson, G.G. Simpson recognized that ''Nyctitherium'' did not represent a bat, and in 1928 named the family Nyctitheriidae for ''Nyctitherium'' and several other small insectivores. Many additional species of Nyctitheriidae from Asia, Europe, and North America have bee ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Wyonycteris Microtis
''Wyonycteris'' is a genus of small mammals that existed in the late Paleocene and early Eocene epochs. The type species is '' Wyonycteris chalix'', which lived in Wyoming during the Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Age of the Paleocene and was originally proposed to be an early form of insectivorous bat. Later re-examination of the material has put this alliance in doubt, and the genus has instead been proposed as belonging to the subfamily Placentidentinae, within the family Nyctitheriidae. Similar fossil material of the same time period found in Europe was later discovered and described as new species, ''Wyonycteris richardi''. Secord (2008) described the first known species of ''Wyonycteris'' from the Tiffanian NALMA, ''Wyonycteris galensis'' and ''W. microtis'', although the status of both species as members of ''Wyonycteris'' has been questioned. The two largest species, ''W. primitivus'' and ''W. kingi'', are known from the early Eocene of Mississippi and England, r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, published since 1915, and publishes original research, scientific reviews, commentaries, and letters. According to ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2022 impact factor of 9.4. ''PNAS'' is the second most cited scientific journal, with more than 1.9 million cumulative citations from 2008 to 2018. In the past, ''PNAS'' has been described variously as "prestigious", "sedate", "renowned" and "high impact". ''PNAS'' is a delayed open-access journal, with an embargo period of six months that can be bypassed for an author fee ( hybrid open access). Since September 2017, open access articles are published under a Creative Commons license. Since January 2019, ''PNAS'' has been online-only, although print issues are available ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Cimolesta
Cimolesta is an extinct order of non-placental eutherian mammals. Cimolestans had a wide variety of body shapes, dentition and lifestyles, though the majority of them were small to medium-sized general mammals that bore superficial resemblances to rodents, lagomorphs, mustelids, and marsupials. Several groups have previously been suggested to have descended from the Cimolesta: the Pholidota (which would have been regarded as a suborder of Cimolesta), the Creodonta, and the Carnivora. The origins of the enigmatic Pantodonta, Tillodonta and Dinocerata have all been suggested to lie within the Cimolesta as well. However, recent studies have revealed that cimolestans are more likely to be basal, non-placental eutherians, with no living descendants. Some experts had placed the pangolins within Cimolesta, though the current consensus is that the pangolins should be placed within their own order, Pholidota, as a sister taxon to Carnivora within Ferae. Some have also placed the enigm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |